"... no man, no matter what cheerful and blandishing countenance fortune may have shown for a while, may rightly deem himself happy, till the last day of his life, by reason of the uncertainty and vicissitude of human life, which by the slightest occasion, are often changed from one state to another in extreme degree."
__ Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
Descartes, Montaigne, Sartre, Camus... and they call the Russians depressing. The French have the human condition balanced with hedonism to forget life's absurdities. True harmony, wouldn't you say?